I snuck out to Dillons (Kroger affiliate) on Tuesday night after the all the little ones were in bed. It was a sort of spur-of-the-moment shopping trip and I didn't have but a few minutes to plan it.
I had gotten a hot tip from a friend earlier that day that the ThinkThin bars were on sale for $1 each and I had a bunch of $0.50/1 coupons from organic coupon booklets which would make them free after they were doubled. I wasn't sure if the bars would still be on sale when the new ad came out on Wednesday so I decided to just run to the store and buy those and see what other deals I might be able to pick up, too.
Here's what I came home with:
1 Healthy Choice Frozen Meal–on sale for $1.65, used the $2/1 coupon
which was available for a brief time earlier this week,
FREE-plus-overage after coupon
1 Tropicana Orange Juice–$4.99, used free product coupon which was available a few weeks ago for a limited time, FREE after coupon
1 Starbucks Ice Cream–$3.49, used free product coupon from the Facebook promotion–no longer available, FREE after coupon
1 Kellogg's Rice Crispies–$3.69, used free product coupon sent to me recently from Vocalpoint, FREE after coupon
1 Chiquita Apple Bites–$1, used free product coupon here, FREE after coupon
1 Chiquita Pineapple Bites–$1, used free product peelie, FREE after coupon
20 ThinkThin bars–on sale for $1 each, used 20 $0.50/1 coupons from Mambo Sprouts coupon booklet (doubled), FREE after coupons
4 bottles of Sobe Life Water–on sale for $1 each, used 2 B1G1 coupons,
$0.50 each after coupons (my hubby loves these in his lunches so I've
been buying them whenever I can get them on a decent sale)
1 Vanilla Soy Milk 1/2 gallon–on closeout for $2.68, used $2/1 coupon here, $0.68 after coupon
My total before coupons and sales was $65.28. After coupons? I paid $5.44–a savings of 94% according to my receipt.
Now, of course, I'd never pay full price for pretty much any of those items, so the savings is quite inflated, but it's still fun to see!
If you're new at the whole coupon thing and wondering if it really works, I hope my shopping trip above encourages you that signing up for the free coupon offers and printing the high-value coupons really does result in big savings for minimal effort.
It takes time to learn the ropes of couponing, but if you keep at it, it will begin to pay off in big savings dividends over time. Plus, one of the side benefits of using coupons and shopping the sales is that you get to try some new products you might not try otherwise! After all, who can beat free when it comes to groceries?!
I'll share more about our other grocery savings this week when I post Super Savings Saturday.
did you find the mambo sprouts coupon booklets at Dillon (kroger) or whole foods? thank you.
I am so glad you can spend so little and get so much But where i live in Iowa there are NO stores who double and triple coupons(at least in the Ames/Boone area) so your savings seem almost dreamlike to me.And the only Aldi in my area is 30 miles away in Ames so we go there once or twice a month. We usually spend anywhere from 90-120 a week on groceries where we live and thats with just plain old coupon redemption. But I do like your ideas and your website!! Have fun on vacation.
This definitely does inspire me to do better at the grocery store… I have almost mastered CVS but at the grocery store my totals are definitely way higher than I want (like generally around $80). I live in a super expensive area so the grocery prices are sky high (for example, a gallon of milk is $4.89), but I should still be able to do better. I guess I have to keep refining my technique!
Thanks for all of your hard work with this site!
I’ve always clipped coupons from the paper and combined them with sales, but I’m trying to get into printing online coupons. However, I’m concerned about downloading software to do so. Seems to me that so many sites require couponprinter.exe. Have you had any trouble with viruses, worms, or infestations? I did a quick search and some people are skeptical. Thanks!!!
We do not have a Kroeger’s. I live in the stix so sadly, alot of these GREAT deals are not at stores around here. No Albertson’s, No Safeway, No Kroegers. But we DO have a Dillon’s. So I am wondering if it is an affiliate of Kroeger’s do they often run the same sales? Thanks in advanceQ
Great trip Crystal! I love it when you share stuff like this. I think it also worth mentioning that I notice you don’t do overkill on the amount of stuff you buy. You get great deals but I think because you do it in modest amounts it isn’t taking up great amounts of time and planning. I have seen many who have grocery carts full of great deals, which of course would amount to a lot more planning time than just picking up a few items. I have learned to downsize my bargain shopping mainly because of the time issue. I am still getting great deals, just in more manageable quantities.Hope I am making sense :)S
Way to go! It’s so much fun to see your weekly shopping trips and how much you save. Thanks for posting them as encouragement to all of us!
Jenny
Can I just say I am so jealous that many of you ladies have stores that double coupons all the time?!
Great job Crystal!
ok…I am excited to hear how yummy the Starbucks Ice Cream is… since I have YET to find it anywhere in my area!! I have been carrying my free facebook coupon around forever …
way to go on your purchases!!!
thank you for the encouragement of this post — to keep at it and keep couponing until I become a whiz like you, and really start to save my family money! I have been trying for about a month to shop sale ads (especially CVS and Walgreens with their bucks back deals) but I feel like I am spending a lot to save a lot, if that makes sense? So I guess I’ll keep trying!!! By the way, what is “price matching?”
All You magazine is $15.00 for a year at Amazon!
Wonderful job, Crystal!
I just wanted to let you know that I tried price-matching at Target today. The only thing that was not ideal about it was that I had to go to Guest Services for them to price match; the regular check-out lanes couldn’t do it. Fortunately, I didn’t have a very large order so it wasn’t that big of a deal. This let me know that I either need to price match when I only have a small order, or pay for my “regular” stuff first, then go to Guest Services for price matching. It was well worth it, though, and the girl at the Guest Service counter congratulated me on saving so much money!
Fantastic job ~ woohoo!! Your shopping trips are always such an inspiration and motivation to save! 🙂 Thanks for posting the pictures!!
Just saved 80% at Kroger tonight!! My Kroger doubles $1 coupons, so I get mega savings!!! Original total was $36 and I walked out the door paying just over $9. Thanks for all your tips and info!!
Thank you for all you do. My husband thinks I am coupon crazy now, but I have actually been able to fill our cupboards really wisely (and cheaply too!). Yes it takes time but hey cutting coupons while watching tv works just fine for me… Im just getting upset at some of the stores not taking certain coupons, my Target today wouldnt do the All or Tide Trial size because the coupon was more than the item and they wouldnt mark it down, they also wouldnt take the extra candy bar coupons.. one being b1g1 the other $1.00 off 2. Kind of frustrated me..but oh well, still found some good deals…Thank you again!
Great job! I have two questions: one- how much time would you “guesstimate” that you spend planning a shopping trip such as this one (assuming you make a plan 🙂 and two- do you ever wrestle with “guilt” that you are taking time away from spending with your family? I wrestle with the guilt issue when I spend time clipping coupons, searching the internet, planning shopping trips, making the trips. I would guess I don’t spend as much time as some but I’m sure I spend more time than others! Anyway – how do you handle it?
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Money Saving Mom here: This shopping trip took me all of five (?) minutes to plan. I just grabbed the best coupons out of my box, stuffed them into an envelope and headed out the door. I have spent up to 30-45 minutes planning, prepping, and clipping coupons if it’s going to be a really big shopping trip, but I usually don’t spend anymore than 15-20 minutes maximum. I print out the high-value coupons as I run across them throughout the week and then it’s just a matter of checking to see what other things are on sale, adding anything extra to our running grocery list, planning a rough menu, and putting all the coupons I want to use in my envelopes. I’ve been coupon-shopping for around 10 years now, so it’s pretty simple to do these days!
I usually work on clipping and filing coupons while I’m doing something else (chatting with family/friends, on family movie night, etc.) so that’s not any extra work.
I usually shop with one or all of my children so it’s not taking time away from my family. On rare occasions, I go by myself, but those are very rare. I’m already involving our girls in the shopping and coupon-clipping as much as possible and they are eager to learn.
In addition, since we routinely save at least $50 per week for the bit of extra time I spend, it’s well worth the extra investment. Plus, my husband loves for me to save money at the grocery store. I don’t have an outside-the-home job, so it’s one way that I contribute to our home economy.
Now, if I were spending hours on this and neglecting my home and family to do so, leaving my children with sitters to go shopping for hours on end, and my husband could care less whether I saved a dime at the grocery store, I would definitely rethink whether this was a worthwhile thing to be investing my time into.
I think everyone needs to evaluate what is right for their own family and situation and then do that.
Hope that helps!
For the Rice Krispies – did Vocalpoint just send you a coupon, did you request it on their site, or what? Thanks!
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Money Saving Mom here: Vocalpoint just seems to randomly send out coupons to members. I’m not sure what their criteria is, but I typically get a packet of coupons from them for some item or another every 6-8 weeks. There is usually a coupon for a free item and then 4-6 other high-value coupons for that same item.
Could you imagine paying $65.28 for those groceries?- goodness, even if I wasn’t frugal I would go away sad.. lol
jen
That is amazing!!
That’s great, but the math seems off – if this is all you bought, shouldn’t you have paid $2.68 minus 35 cents from the overage on the healthy choice meal for a total of $2.33?
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Money Saving Mom here: Stefanie: I have to pay tax on my pre-coupon total. Some states don’t charge tax on food, but ours does, so that’s why I had to pay more than just $2.33. Hope that helps!
Crystal, I have a question for you. Do you take all your coupons with you when you go shopping? I’ve done that a couple times when I go to CVS but it seems so bulky to take in to the store.
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Money Saving Mom here: Honestly, it really depends upon the store and the shopping trip. I usually take my whole box in with me to Dillons, but when I used to shop at CVS, I would only take in my envelope of coupons which I’d prepared to use.
How did you get the Think Thin coupons to double? The ones I got from Mamba Sprouts started with 9 and said do not double in the fine print information about them.
Thanks “Money Saving Mom” for the info! Appreciate it. One more question on the coupon note .. where do you think the best places are to get the coupons? Online, Sunday paper, etc? Where do you think the best deals lie? I currently do not get the Sunday paper, but now I’m wondering if I should be and if it would end up paying for itself? Thanks again!!
How did you get them to double the Think Thin $.50 coupons? I got the $.50 coupons from mambo sprout books but the coupons start with 9 and say do not double in the print about the coupons.
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Money Saving Mom here: Our Dillons stores have very generous coupon doubling policies and they always double coupons–no matter whether they say “do not double” on them or not.
Another great encouragement to me to keep couponing!
Wow – that’s fantastic! You always do so well but this trip in particular is really amazing!
Laura – I saw on one of these comment sections once how one person deals with the coupon limits….If you have old enough children, let each child go through the line and buy 3 of the items with 3 of the coupons. It still may not get you to 20, but it helps and gives the kids some practice shopping…although I would not pick a peak time with long lines to do this!
now that is impressive!
Great deals!
Great trip, Crystal!
May I know where did you find Tropicana coupons? I don’t remember seeing it. Its a great coupon!!
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Money Saving Mom here: These were only available for a few hours last month. I posted about it but you had to be quick since they only had 5000 and they went very fast.
Great job! Really enjoy your website.
Emily
http://peppermintishblog.blogspot.com/
For Vocalpoint members I have a tip! Look for the large boxes of Rice Crispies. A lot of them have 5.00 coupon savings booklets in them. I used my coupon for the free Rice Crispies and got my 5.00 savings booklet for free too (it’s part of the “Fuel for School” thing they are doing)!
Great trip! I love looking at the percentages, even though we’d NEVER pay that much!
True about trying new things. And getting name brand items (used to buy more generics) and we are able to get more organic items.
Go Girl! Way to be a home economist 🙂
I never realized stores will accept two coupons for the same product. Do most all stores (Meijer?) do this? I am definitely inspired! 🙂
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Money Saving Mom here: The only time you can use two coupons on one item is in the case of a store coupon and a manufacturer’s coupon. These can be used together (per store coupon policy), but two manufacturer’s coupons cannot be used on one item. Hope that helps!
Were you able to use 20 ThinkThin coupons in one transaction? My Kroger affiliate has told me that they can only accept up to three identical coupons in one transaction – even if you’ve purchased more than three of that item. Just wondering…thanks!
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Money Saving Mom here: That would be up to an individual store’s policy, but our stores allow you to use more than 3 of the same kind of coupon per transaction. So yes, I was able to use 20 of the same coupons in one transaction. However, I personally usually don’t use that many in one transaction unless I go late at night or use the self-check just because I try to make my transactions smooth so no one has to wait in line for a long time behind me!
You are right on with your statement about being able to try new things. In the past, I would never have splurged on a lot of things that I get for free now!
WOW! Awesome Job!